front seal leak GQ ute
Submitted: Thursday, Feb 19, 2004 at 00:36
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Zapper
Hi all
My GQ ute has an oil leak which I think is coming from the seal on the front left of the axle. Also noticed that both the free wheeling hubs run pretty hot. I only bought this vehicle recently so don't know what maintenance has been done in the past, its an 89 so I can only assume that there will be work to do. My question is this -
how big of a job is it to pull it to bits replace the seal and repack with grease etc etc. Can you buy a kit with the bearings, seals etc or should I just buy the seal and parts that I think I will need? I have quite a bit of mechanical experience but not with the front axle of a 4wd so I am unsure of how hard/involved/time consuming it is. What are the best manuals to buy for these vehicles? Do
Gregory's make them?
Thanks...
Reply By: Roachie - Thursday, Feb 19, 2004 at 10:57
Thursday, Feb 19, 2004 at 10:57
Gregory's make one for the GQ/Maverick, but they don't seem to have made one for my 4.2 GU yet!!
I'm no mechanic, so I can't give you any advice on how big/complex the job is; sorry.
Good luck with it.
Cheers,
Roachie
BTW: whenever I've bought a new (2nd hand) vehicle, I always change all the oils and filters so I know the job is right from the start.
AnswerID:
47301
Reply By: Truckster (Vic) - Thursday, Feb 19, 2004 at 13:51
Thursday, Feb 19, 2004 at 13:51
If your good with spanners its an easy job.
Just cleaning things up is the slowest part of it.. Left side on
mine went, and took me 4 hours to do from start to finish, inc cleaning and regreasing CV etc.
I got Gen Nissan parts, wasnt too bad, the large seal is the worst as usual.. :( Do it all at once,
check out the bearings and others while at it.
AnswerID:
47320
Follow Up By: Zapper - Friday, Feb 20, 2004 at 00:05
Friday, Feb 20, 2004 at 00:05
Truckster
Got hold of a
Gregory's manual today, doesn't seem too bad a job to do the bearings and the axle seal.
4 hours to do yours was that doing all the seals/bearings etc in the swivel joint as
well or just pulling the axle out and doing the seals on that. Coventries quoted me $80 per side for a wheel bearing kit with two new bearinga and I think two seals, is that roughly what it cost you? Can also get a kit for $300 odd which has everything for swivel joint etc but still have to buy wheel bearing kit on top of that so I thought maybe I should try just doing the wheel bearings, axle seal and regrease cv's/hubs while I am at it.
Thanks for you help
FollowupID:
309378
Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Friday, Feb 20, 2004 at 21:54
Friday, Feb 20, 2004 at 21:54
Yea Zapper, I went the whole kit, but Genuine, I figure it lasted this long from OEM as far as I know, so pay a bit more and last the same time again - in theory.
Its probably all made in one place, and bagged differently.. :(
FollowupID:
309479
Reply By: crowe - Thursday, Feb 19, 2004 at 16:55
Thursday, Feb 19, 2004 at 16:55
Zapper,
Have just done this myself on my ute, i replaced my uni joint thingos and thought whist im in there may aswell replace the axle seals and seals on the back of the pivot ball (cant remeber proper name), there is a couple of seals and scrapers in here.
Easiest way to
check how bad your leak is is to remove one of the bolts from the bottom of the pivot bearing caps and see hpow much oil comes out with it, technically it should be dry but if oil starts running out of your bolt hole you know your axle seal is buggered. This is not good as the oil will mix up with the grease in the unijoint causing everthing to wear faster. Oil can also then run through the stub axle in to the wheel bearings causing them to run hotter.
You can buy a kit for oil seals and bearings etc from CBC bearings, i think the kit was about $300 and it covers every seal and bearing including the steering pivot ones for both sides. A note on the rear oil seal for the wheel bearings, dont put it in backwards, apparently it is easy to do and
mine were like this, hence i was having problems with the hubs running hot becasue all the grease was sneaking out the seal rather than keeping it in, not to mention the problems you would have with water penetrating if you did a lot of water work.
All in all, this was the first time i attemtped a job like this and it was easy just following the directions in the book, think my manual is a
gregory's.
Hope this helps, but best to tackle it sooner than later before you have dramas with other expensive components
cheers, crowe
AnswerID:
47335
Follow Up By: bretto - Thursday, Feb 19, 2004 at 20:44
Thursday, Feb 19, 2004 at 20:44
Fair enough, it is a messy job and these hubs are not designed for oil. But If your inner axial seal is lecking the only problem is that it makes a external mess. You should then only worry when oil stops comming out.. Gear Oil does not hurt anything.. Most bearings run in Oil. When gearboxes and diffs are full of grease i will give this game away. :) Cheers and dont worry so much.
FollowupID:
309336
Follow Up By: Zapper - Friday, Feb 20, 2004 at 00:10
Friday, Feb 20, 2004 at 00:10
Thanks Crowe
I bought the
Gregory's manual today and have been reading it. My CV's are ok and the wipers on the swivel joints seem ok to, not sure about the seal on the swivel joint as that is where the oil is leaking out. I was thinking of just doing the axle seal and the wheel bearings, according to the manual is not too bad job, the swivel joint looked like a fair bit more work though. I guess if that swivel joint seal lets leaked oil out it would also let water in so maybe I should do it.
The kit you got from CBC did that have wheel bearings and the axle seal in it also or just the parts to service all the swivel joint?
Zapper
FollowupID:
309379
Follow Up By: crowe - Friday, Feb 20, 2004 at 09:49
Friday, Feb 20, 2004 at 09:49
cbc offer a range of kits, if you just wnat the axle seals and the bearings they'll do it for you, the axle seals will be lucky if their $5 each plus you bearing cost for both sides might be $100 or so.
I bought the total kit because my ute has had a hard life and alot of 4WD kays, so i figured do it once and properly, never do it again in its lifetime and also everything seemed to get cheaper when i bought the whole kit as you would expect.
I would still reccomend that whilst you in there, pull out your swivel bearings and clean, re-pack and install especially the lower one because it gets all the crap in it. You can also then clean and regrease your cv's, nothing more fun than playing with grease;-)
FollowupID:
309397